Manufacturers of foodstuffs, beverages, medicaments, dentifrice, volatile solvents, personal property, and the like conventionally package products in containers or vessels having tamper resistant or tamper evident closures or caps to ensure that products contained within the container are not tampered with or that tampering is evident to the consumer.
There are many conventional examples of tamper evident closures. For example, it is common to provide an externally screw threaded neck which receives a closure with a tamper evident band which engages behind a retaining flange formed on the neck of the container. The tamper evident band joins the skirt portion of the closure by a number of frangible bridges. The closure is received by the externally screw threaded neck and the band is forced over the retaining flange. When the closure is subsequently unscrewed from the container the bridges are readily broken as the band is trapped behind the retaining flange while the closure moves up the neck of the container.
Additionally, there are many conventional examples of child proof or tamper proof closures which engage the container by complementary coupling elements. External pressure can be exerted upon the closure to bring the coupling elements out of engagement and upon simultaneous rotation of the locking cap the latter may be brought into an angular position in which respective bores of the closure and the container coincide to allow removal of the closure.
While tamper evident and tamper proof closures have been widely accepted by the market, there remain substantial unresolved problems with these conventional closures.
One substantial problem with conventional tamper evident and tamper proof closure may be that the closure can be removed and reapplied without damaging the frangible bridges or the complimentary coupling elements in order to contaminate or replace the container contents.
Another substantial problem with conventional tamper evident and tamper proof closures may be that manipulation of the closure is sufficiently uncomplicated to allow removal of these closures by most persons and even children.
Another substantial problem with conventional tamper evident and tamper proof closures may be that the container and cap cannot be dedicated for use by a single consumer. Rather, the conventional taper evident and taper proof containers can provide access to any consumer capable of manipulating the closure to open and close the container.
The invention relates to certain apparatuses and methods which address each of the foregoing problems associated with conventional tamper evident and tamper resistant containers.